Plot
Begin On September 26, the post entitled > Begin was posted to the Sbarg tumblr, which showed a newspaper clipping that told of previously unknown meteors headed towards Earth that were expected to enter our atmosphere on September 30. Hidden in the source code of that page were the words "hint='find a server player'." (Similarly, the words "h͏e҉ ͢ca͜n̴ ̨ǹ■t ̸k̴n͞■w" are hidden in the source code of the main page.) The next day, a second newspaper clipping appeared on the post > Coordinates Locked. The clipping included 18 real-world coordinates across the world, located in the US, the UK, and Australia. These coordinates allowed Sbarg players to interact for the first time. At around the same time that these two posts appeared, the 1824x1486 file appeared in a music player in the tumblr's sidebar and was discovered to be a message in the horrorterror's language. Locating the Coordinates Shortly after the coordinates were posted, it was confirmed that, as the first newspaper clipping had said, the meteors would reach Earth on September 30. This meant that players had a total of 72 hours to solve the puzzle of the coordinates. Players soon began exploring the coordinates' locations, and in doing so they discovered slips of paper that provided codes, along with one letter of a 20-character save point. When a code was input into the "Enter Command" page, 5.5% of Sburb was able to load. Over the course of the next few days, players discovered each individual code, using a Google document to keep track of them. After all of the codes had been entered and Sburb was 100% loaded, players were able to enter into the session and discover their planet. Soon after, a message was posted telling players that they were "safe from him for now" and encouraging them to explore their planets. It was later stated that players were only safe from "him" until he turned his attention to them and their session. Poem The Poem and Time Trail puzzles can be read about in-depth on their respective pages. Through these puzzles, players learned that "he" was preparing to take action against them, and they were instructed to seek their quest beds. The solution of these puzzles unlocked the page > Ascend, allowing players to reach God Tier. Then, a message was posted saying that "he" had destroyed all of the players' planets. As a result, he thought the players defeated and was unaware that they had reached God Tier. The only player planet remaining is his, which survives along with the battlefield. Q&A Information and Chronos A great deal of information has been revealed through responses to players' questions. It was in response to one such question that it was first confirmed that our ultimate goal must be to lose our game session because "he" was/will be created as a result of our session's success. His goal is to "change the circumstances of his creation" and become a "ruling force" capable of influencing numerous sessions. Currently, he is playing the roles of two players simultaneously in that he has both time and space powers. This is to be achieved not by scratching, but by altering course that Sburb typically follows. There are numerous variables that must be changed, including the creation of the Genesis Frog, the destruction of Earth in the Reckoning, and the lit Forge. That gives us three objectives, after which it seems that we will use our save point via the Beat Mesa to return to Earth. More concrete information on "him" (including his name, Chronos) was provided in the post > recount tale. First Tier: Battle Forge On the evening of October 2, the post > Wreck his shit instructed players earn grist through acts of charity. Such acts can be creating depictions of fellow players and their lands in the form of art, fic, music, etc.; helping fellow players with Sbarg; donating food, clothes, money, etc. to those in need (regardless of the game); and other such things. Players post their efforts on tumblr's #sbargrist tag, Freerice donations tagged as #sbargrist freerice, and on twitter tagged as #sbargrist. The Sbarg tumblr has a progress bar for the grist goal showing an eyeball moving towards the end of a tentacle. The first goal of 500 grist was reached on October 3, allowing players to attack the Forge. A post was made on the Sbarg tumblr instructing players to go to Omegle.com and put "forgefight" into the interest tag under the video option. Players had to first locate the Sbarg official on Omegle (recognizable by their use of the sidebar art in place of a webcam), and then could choose one of four battle actions: ATTACK with a God Tier move for 5 damage, attack with help from a SPRITE for 10 damage, help the following player by giving them a 2x ATTACK MULTIPLIER (stackable), or FLEE. About an hour and fifteen minutes after the battle began, success was declared. The final blow utilized an attack multiplier that had been built up by players to multiply a regular attack by 512, resulting in a 2560 HP attack that more than eliminated the Forge's remaining HP. Second Tier: Genesis Frog Once the Forge was destroyed, players were instructed to earn 1000 grist to help them kill the Genesis Frog (starting from 0 grist, as all of the previously earned grist was used up in the battle with the Forge). On October 7, the battle with the Genesis Frog began. Players first had to locate the Genesis Frog by guessing spaces on a 26x26-block grid; similar to a game of Battleship, if they guessed correctly, the frog would be hit, and if they were incorrect, the block that they had guessed would be marked with red to prevent others from repeating the same guess. After about two hours, the Frog was hunted down by a particularly pawsome player. The battle proper started a few minutes later, with players able to use the same moves as th ey had against the Forge. After only about fifteen minutes of fighting, the Genesis Frog was defeated by an unlikely ally. Encrypted Message On October 8, following the battle against the Genesis Frog, the Horrorterrors posted a message saying that Chronos is attempting to prevent us from communicating, and that future messages must be better encrypted. Along with this message, they provided two images. If both images are copied into a Photoshop document with the first image on one layer and the second image on the layer above, then you can right-click on the top layer and select "Blending Options" to reveal the message. There are a few settings that will change how the message appears, but it is clearest on the "Exclusion" setting, as shown on the left. The message says: : msparp.com : anonymous/other : match only with anonymous/other : oct 10 7PM EST